#4126: Antoine makes an appeal to the list (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: Guy Antoine <GuyAntoine@windowsonhaiti.com>

"He and his wife have part or full ownership of phone companies 
(Three cellular and the illegal callback phone companies) from 
which they are making millions of US dollars while causing the 
state-owned phone company (Teleco) to lose tens (possibly 
hundreds) of million of US dollars every year."

Over the last several years, many accusations have been made
against Aristide.  However, it's always in the form of: "Aristide
owns...", "Aristide said...", "Aristide xxx", "Aristide yyy".  For
a change, could someone present an argument in the form of
"The above documentation shows that Aristide..." or "Here's
PROOF that "Aristide ...".

Someone else on this list said that Aristide constantly brags 
about how he disbanded the army "MWEN KRAZE LAME".
It sounds weird to me...  If Aristide constantly boasts of it, why
haven't I heard it?  Could you please make some explicit
references as to when he said it, in which speech, and in what
circumstances?  Since presumably, he always boasts "MWEN
KRAZE LAME", then that should be the easiest thing in the
world to document.

Twice on this list, someone referred to Aristide as the "zozo
priest".  I asked for an explanation of this surname, which
appears to be nothing else but a vulgar insult unbecoming
a list such as this one.  My query was not answered.

Corbett asks members of the list to not engage in personal
attacks against other members of the list.  I assume then that
Aristide is not a member of the list (and since he is a public
figure, I wonder whether this would make a difference...
Corbett may inform).  But I would like to make an appeal
of a different sort to the list, one which I cannot expect to
be enforced (we will not engage in political correctness),
rather it's an appeal to civility and intelligent discourse:

a. We should not engage in gratuitously insulting other people,
whether members of the list or not.
b. All accusations should be reasonably supported (with
some documentation, direct or strongly circumstancial
evidence) and not simply stated as though "everyone knows
this, therefore there is no need to substantiate"
c. We should refrain from extrapolating wildly on what
someone actually said to make it look like they said something
entirely different.
d. We should refrain from inflicting on the list prolonged
personal disagreements of the sort that bog down to "I 
am right, you're wrong, so there!"  If there is no additional 
element to add that would have the advantage of elucidating 
your position or educating the rest of us, then why send it?  
Corbett should not have to make the judgement on what 
post is relevant or not.  We should seriously ask ourselves: 
"Am I going to contribute something with this post , or do 
I just want to state a thousand times over that I am the one
who is right?"

If we cut down on the groundless or unsupported accusations,
eliminate the gratuitous insults, refrain from deliberately
distorting other's people's thoughts, and reduce the number
of "I am right, you're wrong!" posts that contribute nothing
to our knowledge or enlightenment, maybe then we could
read dozens of significants posts and debates rather than 
what must seem like thousands and millions, and billions,
and trillions, and quadrillions, and carlsaganillions of them. 

Would not the result of this be marvelous for our host and
for ourselves?
 
Thank you,
Guy S. Antoine
http://windowsonhaiti.com